My entourage of 25mm knights and their accompanying troops appeared on the table, accompanied by two decks of cards to govern the action sequence. Each side was given a basic number of units, and then, via an assignment of 150 points, was permitted to purchase supporting forces. By definition, a unit was composed of three stands, sufficient to determine if it was in line or column. The types of units available were: Mounted Knights 90 points per unit Foot Knights 60 Men at arms 45 Trained Archers 45 Untrained Foot 30 Untrained Archers 30 The untrained archers were a losing proposition... I had 2 units of them, and I think they hit their target once in 2 games. Usually, I use a fairly simple alternate movement system... perhaps complicated by a wee bit of card play... but essentially all troops on a side may do things when their side becomes active. Here, however, in a definite break with tradition, I incorporated a magical, mystical aura of command for the leader figures of each side. The two sides each had three Leading Knights, one of them appointed Supreme Commander. A Movement Deck for the active side contained a number of cards (randomly drawn) indicating how many of these Leading Knights were active on that phase. Each active Leading Knight could then move all units within his magical, mystical aura of 8 inches. Units outside the aura were not completely forgotten, however. There were two of these units could be made active: a. First, on each card of the Movement Deck, one additional unit, outside of any of the active Leading Knights' mystical auras, was permitted to move. b. Second, on each card of the Movement Deck was noted a number of Movement Points (MP), either 1, 2, or 3. Each time a card was drawn, the number of MP was tallied, and the total was then accumulated. When a side became active, it could, instead of playing and using a card from the Movement Deck, discard a Movement Card and use its accumulated MP to move any units on the table... regardless of their location. One point was needed to rove a unit, hence one could maneuver any unit regardless of its positioning. This procedure seemed to work well... it allowed a limited number of movement options, without giving absolute free reign to all the forces on the field. In one of our battles, a flanking force of Men at Arms was sent by Sir John Shirey to assist in an attack on Ugly Castle, defended by Brian Dewitt and Fred Haub. Ugly Castle is so named because it is, in a word, ugly. I purchased it at least 7 or 8 years ago at one of the HMGS conventions, and have placed it on the field on numerous occasions to be defended or attacked (depending upon which side you were on) . Ugly Castle is made of styrofoam, nicely carved, but unpainted. It provides an interesting backdrop for 25mm figures: a courtyard plus defensive positions in an area approximately 15 inches by 15 inches. My Year 2,000 plan is to get it both primed and painted... but I'm not sure I can meet the deadline. Anyway, there were Sir John's forces skirting the Dark Woods, trying to approach Ugly Castle. Sir John was on my side, and we drew a card from the Movement Deck and moved our forces accordingly. I should note that during the active side's movement phase, units are not permitted to get any closer than 2 inches to enemy units. The actual closing phase comes during the melee portion of the turn. All looked well for Sir John's men. But now we turned to the second deck, termed the Reaction Deck. After every draw by the active side of its Movement Deck cards, the non-active side gets to draw a Reaction Deck card. This gives the non-active side a chance to react before the active side's forces can close on him. The Reaction Deck contains such cards as "4 units can move" or "2 units get 2 actions", "2 units can fire", etc., etc. On this particular turn, the Reaction Deck card read: "2 non-active units may immediately y engage any active side units within 2 inches and get a free hack!" Sir John's marching Men at Arms, it turned out, were within 2 inches of the Dark Woods, and in the Dark Woods, guarding the Dewitt-Haub flank of Ugly Castle, were 2 units of Dewitt-Haub untrained foot. This was an opportunity not to be missed. Out surged the untrained foot, and BLAM! BAM!, they quickly put 2 hit markers on Sir John's boys. Immediately thereafter, there followed the regular melee phase, but with their hit markers counting against them, the Men at Arms routed back, ignominiously wilting under the attack of the untrained foot. Not a good beginning for the Simon/Shirey forces. Sequence As indicated above, therefore, the actual sequence consists of several phases: a. Active side draws Movement Deck card or plays Movement Points and moves and fires. b. Non-active side draws Reaction Deck card and does horrible retaliatory things to active side's units. c. Active side's units close to contact and melee is resolved. d. Rally phase for active side during which he can attempt to rally his troops. The Leading Knights play an extremely important role in all procedures. Each has a data sheet, each is a viable target... 10 hits and he keels over. But there's yet another way to exhaust the Leading Knight. On his data sheet, the Leading Knight has three separate sets of numbers: RALLY 80 80 70 70 60 50 REACTION 30 20 20 20 15 10 SUPPORT 80 80 80 70 70 60 His rally points are used to rally a lost stand. He chooses a number, and that's the percentage that the stand returns to its unit. Note that he can do this only so many times. Second, his reaction points are used to bolster a unit's morale level. He chooses a number and that's the percent increase in the morale level of the unit under test. Here, too, he can do this only so many times. Third, his support points are used to assist his units in melee. When, as active commander, he charges forward with one of his units, termed the "closing unit", he can attempt to closing unit with others. He selects a potential supporting unit, chooses a number, and that's the percentage chance that the selected unit closes in to help the closing unit. By definition, the Leading Knight dies when two of his three sets of Rally, Reaction, or Support numbers are crossed out. During our attack on Ugly Castle, my left flank commander, a Leading Knight bearing the name of Sir Morton, had inestimable difficulty in bringing in support units. His closing unit would charge in, and then he'd point to another unit to help them. He'd select a support percentage, toss the dice, and the support unit would refuse to budge! One can use any number of support points on a unit, and so Sir Morton would choose yet another support number for the assisting unit, and toss his dice a second time... no go!!! He tried this several times, but evidently he could stir no heroic thoughts in the breasts of his supporting units, and after a while, he just gave up. And not only was he failing to bring in supporting troops, but each time he used up a number, he was, in effect, shortening his life span! But credit must be given to Sir Morton... under his brilliant leadership, he managed to get a unit of foot knights, appropriately called the Brotherhood of the Blood, up on the walls of Ugly Castle. And with his last remaining support number, he brought up the remnants (a single stand) of Hurst's Men at Arms to assist. Then Sir Morton lay back and was still, having given his all for his cause. And so there on the walls stood 3 stands of the Brotherhood of the Blood, plus one stand of Hurst's Men at Arms, facing the entire garrison. Happily, Brian Dewitt's defenders had problems similar to those encountered by Sir Morton. Brian would call on a unit to support, and the unit would simply refuse to move!! It was just a bad day for all Leading Knights. In melee, all stands start out by receiving a single Hit Die, a 10­sided die on which a toss of 7, 8, 9, or 10 is a hit. Units get additional dice for particular situations... here, for example, the defenders of Ugly Castle got an extra die for cover, an extra die for elevation, etc. But these were outweighed by the dice of the Brotherhood, for all stands of units of foot knights get an extra die. Even the opposing Leading Knights joined in, each contributing 2 additional dice to their forces' totals. In short, lots of dice were thrown, each side looking for 7, 8, 9, or 10 on each. Hits were noted on the data sheets, stands were removed (it takes about 4 hits to knock off a stand), and the sides looked at 2 parameters: H The total number of hits inflicted on the opposition the casualties you caused S The total number of your own surviving stands. The sides then computed the following, where the winner is defined as the higher product: 10-sided die x (H + S) I'm proud to say that the Brotherhood of the Blood maintained their position on the walls. The defenders were driven back. Sir Morton could rest easy... for a little while, at least. The battle was an enjoyable one, evidenced by Brian Dewitt's concluding remark: "These rules have potential!" What more could a man want?? I feel as if I'm ready to lie down alongside Sir Morton. Back to PW Review Nov/Dec 1994 Table of Contents Back to PW Review List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1994 Wally Simon This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. 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